1950s-70s Space Race to The Moon: 1966-02-26 USA Saturn IB AS-201

Saturn 1B flight Spacecraft Swanson cachet cover with Cape Canaveral postmark February 26, 1966. Signed by Von Braun's rocket team member, Konrad Dannenberg

AS-201, launched on February 26, 1966, was the first unmanned test flight of an entire production Block I Apollo command and service module (CSM) and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The spacecraft consisted of the second Block I command module and the first Block I service module. The suborbital flight was a partially successful demonstration of the service propulsion system and the reaction control systems of both modules, and successfully demonstrated the capability of the command module's heat shield to survive re-entry from low Earth orbit.

Photo: The last stage of a Saturn 1B rocket displayed in a ceremony on August 31, 1965.

NASA cachet for the first Saturn 1B flight with KSC machine and hand cancel, February 26, 1966.

Photo: Saturn IB AS-201 shoots toward space on February 26, 1966.

Saturn 1B AS-201 cover with Velvatone cachet, postmarked at Cape Canaveral on February 26, 1966.

Photo: "The sketch shows the approximate flight of the Apollo missile launched Saturday from Cape Kennedy, Fla. The mightiest rocket ever built in the United States, a Saturn I-B, was used to hurl the first unmanned Apollo over a blazing re-entry course to a landing in the Atlantic ocean where ships waited to pick it up. February 26, 1966"